The hidden talent thread.

Has anyone ever discovered unusually talented people in unlikely places?

Some years ago I worked for a company that installed PA and background music systems (we were responsible for the crap musak that used to be played in Mc.Ds).We were installing a PA (Public Address) system into the dole office in Battersea and I was in the basement that was I think two floors below street level,so kinda spooky and almost deserted but still occupied by a few staff hence the need for a PA and fire warning system.I was working away when I heard a very clear woman's voice singing Otis Redding's "Dock of the bay" and thought to myself how strange to have a hi-fi system that must have been very expensive to have sounded that good deep in the basement of a building such as a dole office.So I walked towards the source of the sound and was VERY surprised to find a black negro woman singing while sat at her desk in the archive department,the apparant sole occupant of the sub basement level of this building.She was singing because she was happy,despite having worked down there for ten years and only seeing daylight before and after work.But what a voice,this was easily the best version of this song I'd ever heard and would have put to shame every single entrant in todays "talent" shows (a term I use VERY loosely).What a waste having a singing voice as perfect as that shut up deep underground,even more remarkable was being shut up down there would have driven me stir crazy after about one day but she was still ready to what was expected of her without question.Wish I could have stayed and listened to some more of her remarkable talent,but that was my last day on that job.

Different job but installing jukeboxes in pubs,this time in a pub in Newhaven on the Sussex coast.Took a break in one of the old bedrooms upstairs with the builders,and one of them who was in his late teens found an old acoustic guitar that only had five strings left and was hopelessly out of tune.He picked it up and started strumming away,gave the machine heads a quick tweak to try and get it in better tune and sang The Jams "English Rose" better than Weller ever did with six strings in his six string guitar.Maybe he's famous now,maybe not,who knows?

Any more like this?

Chris.

I can touch my nose with my tongue.

I can pinch the fire out of someone with my toes. Don't laugh, it's come in handy.

Sounds like you were lucky to catch a heartfelt performance in your story. I knew an extremely talented and surprisingly gracious man who made a living for awhile claiming to be Otis Day from Animal House fame.

Funny thing was, was that he was much more talented than the real thing. Newspaper and lawyers finally caught up with him, but he was well loved and is probably still playing venues in the Tampa Bay area.

He did a 15+ minute version of Shout and could make a crowd dance the whole sweat-drenching time. Got him on tape doing it. Love that guy: Otis, My Man!